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Pension-funding levels surged last year and we could see more gains in 2014. Towers Watson estimates levels last year rose by 16 percentage points to an aggregate 93% for 418 Fortune 1000 companies. That’s still below the 106% reached in 2007, but companies could see triple digits this year if long-term interest rates continue to rise and the stock market remains strong, Alan Glickstein, senior retirement consultant for Towers Watson, tells CFOJ’s Vipal Monga. “My colleagues have a few wagers on the rate going up,” he says.

Rising interest rates are driving investors toward shorter-term securities. And that means that issuers trying to lock in cash for longer periods are facing a tougher sell, the WSJ’s Katy Burne and Mike Cherney write. Companies have issued a record $361 billion of low-rated bonds in the U.S. this year, but the share of junk debt maturing in eight or more years represented 59% of issuance—the lowest since 2009.

The Fed thinks the economy is slowly getting back on track. The central bank’s decision to rein in its bond-buying program sent U.S. markets soaring yesterday and Asia and Europe are following suit today. Officials had been worried that investors would panic at the thought of less Fed support, so they made a big effort to show that they would keep interest rates low for years to come, the WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath and Victoria McGrane write. “Today’s policy actions reflect the [Fed's] assessment that the economy is continuing to make progress, but that it also has much farther to travel before conditions can be judged normal,” Ben Bernanke said at his final news conference as Fed chairman.

AMR and US Airways got the green light for their merger after just a few concessions. Antitrust and airline-industry experts tell the WSJ that the settlement was a victory for the carriers, because it left the majority of their merger plan intact. US Airways and AMR, parent of American Airlines, agreed to give up space at several major airports. But they probably would have given up some of the slots anyway to consolidate operations after their merger. US Airways CEO Doug Parker told the Journal that the concessions were “not material enough to offset what we said the day we announced,” which was that the merger would create more than $1 billion in total annual savings and revenue gains.

Today’s monthly jobs numbers may take some deciphering to figure out how much of an impact the government shutdown had on hiring. The shutdown didn’t just delay the report by a week—it also muddied the data, writes the WSJ’s Ben Casselman.

Corporate America is running into trouble in China. The latest batch of quarterly earnings shows that China has become a weak spot for many companies— just as European economies are showing signs of stabilizing and the U.S. economy is waking up, the WSJ’s Ruth Bender and Kate Linebaugh write. “Don’t kid yourself,” says Pernod Ricard CEO Pierre Pringuet. “When a country falls from double-digit growth to 7.5%, there are repercussions.”

The CFTC is facing a cash crunch. David Meister, who stepped down this week as the agency’s enforcement chief, tells the WSJ’s Jean Eaglesham in this interview that it is so underfunded it has had to delay cases and shelve certain probes. The funding squeeze is forcing the CFTC to make “some very tough choices” about its work, Mr. Meister said. One example: the agency’s decision not to charge two former J.P. Morgan traders over the “London whale” trading mess.

PwC is banking on more growth in consulting with its acquisition of Booz. Terms weren’t disclosed, but the transaction appears to be among the biggest deals involving an accounting firm in at least the past decade, the WSJ reports. The deal is expected to beef up PwC’s fast-growing advisory business and should also help it tap Booz’s experience developing strategies for clients. “PwC has made it really clear they’re bulking up their management-consulting business,” said Tom Rodenhauser, managing director at Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory.

Twitter’s IPO is set to be one of the biggest tests of the JOBS Act. The company revealed plans to raise up to $1 billion yesterday after previously using a portion of the law to file confidentially with regulators. So potential buyers just got their first glimpse of Twitter’s financials, which showed the social network’s revenue more than doubled to $254 million in the first six months of this year, the WSJ reports. But there were also some red flags. Its net loss grew by 40% to $69 million in the period as expenses ballooned. And its user growth is slowing, at the same time prices for ads, which make up the bulk of the company’s revenue, are falling. “They certainly have a lot of work ahead of them to get mainstream America to understand” how Twitter works, said Brian Solis, an analyst at the Altimeter Group.

Manufacturers are getting squeezed by the shutdown. Companies were already nervous about the rollout of the health-care law and the sluggish economy, and the latest dose of uncertainty is forcing them to consider layoffs, the WSJ reports. “Everybody is in this giant gray area,” said Lisa Goldenberg, president of Delaware Steel of Pennsylvania. “What the shutdown is doing is slowing down an already slow machine.”